


Stray Cats and Pill Bugs

by GeneralNerdbot



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, Human!Kwamis, Multi, archive warnings will update on chapter release, gangster au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-19 16:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14241561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeneralNerdbot/pseuds/GeneralNerdbot
Summary: Adrien Agreste, despite being a supermodel in his teenage years, had a hard life. It was hard to accept the fact his father was the godfather of the biggest drug cartel in Europe.These days, he councils people with addictions in order to help them to get clean. With his new client however, he might of bit off more than he could chew.





	1. Chapter 1

**_10:30 am, 62 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001 Paris, France._ **

 

Adrien sipped on some chamomile tea, watching the snow flakes rain down the sky from his desk.

 He didn't mind snow, but it left him just _so_ bitter. Not particularly the snow's fault, but seeing it still reminded him the day his father was apprehended by the police.

 Imagine this: The most recognised fashion designer in all of Paris just also happened to be a kingpin to the biggest drug cartel of western Europe. Fooling hundreds to millions of people of having a squeaky-clean reputation but at the same time blackmailing innocent civilians, (even children for gods sake) to join this glorified street gang to overpower the inner workings of capitals of multiple countries, and overtaking the drug trade in places like France, Belgium, Monaco, England, and Italy.

 All just to find the one woman who could undo all his hard work. Adrien's Mother, Emilie, who at this point was in hiding after Interpol had taken her in.

 Adrien himself? His whole modelling career was built on grooming Gabriel's reputation and being bait to lure his mother out of hiding.

 

 So, Adrien became a councillor.

 

Specifically, Substance Abuse Counselling.

 

And, His newest client, a Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng, happened to be very late.

 According to his assistant, Luka, she was rather.. Unwilling to participate in this, but her friend had aggressively insisted she would do so as her prescription pill addiction was spiralling out of control.

 Adrien flipped through the file, and felt rather puzzled.

 Up to this point, she was a role model; perfect student, nice family life from a nice part of town and an upcoming fashion designer.

 His face soured as he put down his tea cup.

 

Uncomfortable coincidences.

 

It seemed she had gotten addicted specifically to sleeping pills while she was still in university due to taking too may over-nighters wrecking her sleep schedule, but it started to rip at her life as of late.

 

“S-Sorry I'm late, Mr.Agreste!”

 

The office door swung open with a shaky, petite girl with short, dark hair stumbled in, frantically clutching onto her purse before sitting down on a couch in the other end of the room.

 

“The Traffic was awful from the Bakery this mo-morning.” Marinette mumbled, her gaze twitching in between Adrien and at the Aloe Vera plant in the corner of the office.

 

“It's alright, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Adrien gathered his papers and sat in a chair across from the young lady. She was obviously frazzled and uncomfortable. It would be best to have her relax for this, but with almost an hour taken from their meeting, the situation at hand had to be handled in a much faster pace.

She wore tan dress pants and a nice white knitted sweater, with sleeves just too long for her arms. Her fingers just barely poked out of it as she twisted her hair, hardly keeping any eye contact with Adrien at all. 

Instead, she was more focused on the newspaper clippings framed on the walls or the books over on the redwood shelf nearby...

Then back to the aloe vera plant.

 

“Now, have you started the first step that we discussed?”

 

Adrien pulled out a black pen and a small pad of lined paper in preparation to take notes.

 

“Half the dosage....Yes..” Marinette murmured, but looked at Adrien with uncertainty. “B-but its not even that much!” she waved her hands back and forth in front of her. “All I need them for is to help me sleep-” she paused and clenched her fists with an anxious expression on her face.

 

“This....This isnt even bad. Its not a problem...” Marinette quieted as she pulled her legs up and close to her chest. "Its not bad at all.."

 It sounded as if she was trying to convince herself than convince him.

 

Adrien pitied her.

 

“This is only the first step to wane yourself off of them.”

 

Scritch Scritch.

 The pen seemed to be running out of ink. 

 

“I am certain that you do not have an addictive personality-”

He wasn't actually certain of this, but she seemed innocent enough. He would have to keep a good eye on the progress to find out.

“-But you have just wound up in a bad place.”

 Adrien continued to write down notes of this on his pad, before looking up at Marinette; straight into her eyes.

 “I'll do everything in my power to make sure you'll return to good health.”

 

 He stopped writing, and smiled in a peculiar way that to Marinette... That it felt like warmth from the sun.

 

“But all it takes is this first step to get the ball rolling.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**_8:00pm, Enroute to Agreste Manor_ **

 

Adrien had just pulled in from the street to a public parking spot with his little black Volkswagen beetle. Finding parking spots in Paris was surprisingly a hard thing to do, especially since the police had seized his old home after he moved out in the search for evidence of the drug trades and the return of stolen items the said cartel had brought to their leader.

 

He was certain that wasnt legal, but with interpol involved and being the son of said gang leader he felt it wasn't in the right to point it out. It was many years later since the raid of the estate, so even if it was a possibility it was much too late to ask.

 

Recently, Adrien was able to go into the building to retrieve some of this old belongings, seeing that he was officially considered a victim in this case rather a conspirator. Why they thought he would do anything like that when he was sixteen amazed him; even worse that they only ruled him out almost a decade later.

 

Though, he was internally kicking himself for not taking up the offer of help from Nino while he was still in town. For a famous music producer with a studio in Paris, he certainly is travelling alot more than expected.

 

So, parked almost four blocks away from his old home, Adrien started the long treck before getting to his destination. It was expected of course, since he only had the chance to go grab his things now, seeing his work days were long and yes, he had to eat dinner amongst having his normal everyday life. He had been putting off going to his old home since being there did give Adrien some discomfort, but it could not be helped at this point.

 

Unfortunate that his trip down the street was short lived, as he was pulled into a back alleyway almost instantaneously.

 “Now, listen here, pretty boy: give me all your cash and nobody needs to get hurt.” a silken voice, surprisingly dulcet had commanded.

 

The man was hooded, and had a tight grip on him. He had a knife up to Adrien's neck, and had slowly paced them farther into the alleyway.

 It was times like these he wished he took the self defence classes his old bodyguard had told him to take when he was a kid. Fencing would certainly not help him in this case at all.

 

 "I'm sorry...But I dont carry cash on me?"

 

Why was he apologising to his robber?

The robber seemed to go closer to his ear, to the point he could feel his breath on the side of his neck.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"  Adrien could see black strands of hair in his peripheral vision, but just barely. "Fine, just play along then."

 

Play along? To a fake robbery with a guy with a knife to your neck. 

Right.

 

"I'm so-rry, I have TEn DoLLars. LEt mE GrAB mY WalLet."  He robotically started to reach for his pocket, gently patting them like he was doing the macarina. Lets just say acting was no longer one of Adrien's strong suits.

 The man seem not to care, as his attention was sort of elsewhere. Even his grip sort of loosened. 

 

Adrien debated booking it right then and there, but he couldn't help to think there was alot more to this situation that this man was letting on. So, Adrien waited. 

 

"Good, now I dont need to rob the cheese shop AGAIN!" The man bellowed as if were waiting for something to happen.

 

Wait.

The news this morning said there was a man on the run due to robbing cheese shops across the country, but only left with Camembert.

This was the guy who was robbing one of the local cheese shops just for Camembert?

Why Camembert?

 

Adrien was asking all the wrong questions, as two women dressed in red and black suddenly attacked the cheese robber.

"I see that you've come to resort to this, Plagg."

Adrien moved farther down the alleyway as a girl with raven-black hair  and a red combina mask had quickly disarmed Plagg(?) and had him down on the ground. The other, much shorter than the two, her whole face was covered by a red volto styled mask, as well strangely enough.

"For the last time, Black cat, Tikki is not interested in taking an audience with you." 

She poked him with a replica sword.

 

Well, Adrien hoped it was a replica sword.

 

"And trying to pull this off is not helping your case, you traitor."

That voice, came out of the one in pigtails. It sounded familiar to him, which was rather concerning.

 

 "You Ladybugs are so goddamn rough with me. I just need to talk to Tik-"

"She said no. and the answer is still, no. Get used to it Plagg, you're not going to see her." The short one shot Plagg down so hard he looked like she stabbed him. "Especially after what you did."

The grip was loosened as the Ladybug who was pinning him down shoved him away from the duo.

"Stop trying, Plagg. Its no use."

Plagg stayed on the ground, rather dejected, as the the pigtailed one noticed Adrien.

 

"Go home Adrien. This has nothing to do with you."

 

The duo left right after that.

 

It only registered in Adrien's mind after the fact, that the woman knew his name.

 

"FUCK!" Plagg slammed his fist down on the ground in frustration, and start to place his hands on his head. It was only now that Adrien had a good look at him.

 He was just a tad shorter than Adrien himself, and was well toned. His dark skin contrasted his green and grey hoodie he was wearing, and his black hair was short, but looked like he was just in a tornado.  But with a tad of gel. Some cargo pants and combat boots and bright green eyes this dude looked like he was about to bawl his eyes out.

Adrien was probably going to regret what he was going to say next, but Adrien felt like he needed Plagg's help to figure out this situation, and who those girls were.

 

"Um, are you alright? Do you wanna get some comfort food?"

 

"Camembert.... Please.." Plagg choked out. 

 Oh boy. 

 Adrien got the fellow onto his two feet and started to walk him back to his car. His belongings would have to wait for the night. There were more pressing matters at hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd appreciate feedback, as im a bit nervous of the whole fanfiction thing. (Writing isn't my strong suit, lets just say.) If it works out I might try to fix my other fic I was working on, though that one has a bit more complicated roots to it. I hope you enjoyed it! :D


	2. Chapter 2

**_3:00 pm, A.Agreste Bachelor Apartment._ **

 

"For the last time, I am not joining your gang."

Adrien wasn't exactly impressed with this turn of events, since his attempt at comforting his would-be robber ~~(Adrien why)~~ only for it to end with seemly permanent couch hopping guest for the near future. Plagg, on the other hand thought this was a genius idea, seeing that Adrien wouldn't let him break and enter the old Agreste manner to create a gang base out of it, couch surfing in the councillor's apartment would do.

And since he involuntarily moved in, the tiny apartment now stank of Camembert and Plagg had been on board trying to convince Adrien to join his gang ever since.

To think, this small man was a leader of the Black Cat gang. One of two gangs Emilie had seemed to alert about Hawkmoth's gang, and the blackmailed Akumas about. The other gang, was supposedly the Ladybugs, like the two from a few weeks ago. Plagg wasn't really willing to speak much about all about the gangs seeing that Adrien was constantly refusing his proposal, but he did mention a few things.

Currently, there were six dominant gangs across Europe, and now that Hawkmoth's was out of the way, the Ladybugs were the strongest going ones.. Though they were behaving more like peacemakers rather than something like a drug cartel. They kept the rest in line, so the underworld did not seem to have any limelight. Plagg, wanted to speak to Tikki, supposedly the leader of the gang- Adrien wasnt certain for what, but he was willing to bet it had something to do with Plagg being called a traitor.

Plagg did mention some of the other gangs, like the Red Foxes and the Iron Turtles, but he didnt delve into it much seeing he was much more focused on recruiting Adrien hoping that it would help him get a hold of Tikki.

Well, that and hoarding Camembert. Adrien couldn't understand the man's obsession with the cheese, but he was starting to wonder if he had to start taking his work home with him.

Adrien did want to learn more about it, seeing unlike what that woman said before- Adrien felt he was much more involved with the situation that she knew. The fact this woman knew Adrien also concerned him, which made him want to know more about that particular Ladybug-

Which would in turn bring up Plagg's proposal: Plagg would make Adrien join the Black Cats so he could have a second in command like rest of the bigger gangs, hoping to get Tikki's attention from this. In turn, Adrien would have access in the underworld and would be able to look for the Ladybug he was so concerned about.

Now, the proposal wasn't a half bad idea; it just left a really bad taste in Adrien's mouth.

Seeing that his father was THE Hawkmoth, and all the horrible things he had done under that guise, Adrien wanted nothing to do with the inner workings of the underworld, nor the gangs that lived within it.

 

But that woman....

 

Adrien couldn't really shake her out of his head for some reason. For someone he had just met, there was a frightening feeling of familiarity due to speaking before. They must of, since she seemed to know exactly who he was. So, he must of known the woman under the mask as well, right? That was one of three sensible reasons to him at least. 

The other two reasons were that he used to be a model, but he doubt he had any fans now, nor was recognisable by them since he wasn't exactly a teenage dreamboat like he was back then. Adrien was much more built now, but it wasn't that he was lifting weights...He just sort of filled out that way. Secondly, he was much more tired looking, despite his friendly demeanour. He had tried to grow a beard at one point, but when even his five o'clock shadow grew in patchy he gave up before he could even start.

The other possible reason was that this woman knew how he was related to the Hawkmoth cartel; and was trying to push him out of the situation immediately to stop history from repeating itself.

It wasn't like Adrien wanted anything to do with it in the first place. His life was turned upside down from that winter day ten years ago. Imagine seeing your home on the news getting raided by Interpol and various other organisations to arrest your father, then interrogating you relentlessly for months to find out if you knew anything about the whole situation.

It didn't really matter now, seeing it was done and over with; Adrien moved on in his own life so he expected these underground groups wished for the same.

 

Yet, here Plagg was, laying down on Adrien's couch like he was a roman emperor dangling Camembert into his mouth.

"Come on, Adrien, my deal benefits us both so well! You dont even need to stay, I just need you stand there and look pretty in a nice suit vest and mask so I can bluff having some authority to speak with Tikki. Its's not hard."

Plagg shoved the rind of the Camembert in his mouth; chewing slowly.

"Plus, something stinks as of late. I feel like the Ladybugs need to prep themselves."  Plagg brought his fist to his mouth, seemingly irritated. "Sooner I get a hold of Tikki the better."

Adrien could not help but think that the only thing that stunk was the amount of cheese this guy brought into his apartment.

Not long after, the Pink Panther theme rang from Adrien's phone. 

"One sec." Adrien held his hand up as he answered the call. "Hello, Adrien Agreste speaking."

"Oh hey Adrien, its Luka."

A work call, alright then.

"I'm calling to let you know that your schedule has been cleared up tomorrow. I know you only had two a-appointments tomorrow, but both called in saying they were not going to be able to make it in." Luka buzzed through the phone, sounding almost disappointed. "But you should enjoy this unexpected day off. I'll try to see I can get a follow-up why they couldn't come in and see if they can be rescheduled for some point next week."

"Thank you for letting me know, Luka. You should take a break too after the follow-up too. You deserve the day off too." 

That was the third time since Marinette had canceled her appointments with him since they started her counselling. Her friend, Alya(?) had mentioned when she helped arrange the appointments that Marinette felt strongly against the meetings, so perhaps she needed a bit more guidance to actually be persuaded to continue doing them.

The other appointment wasn't even for counselling at all. Why would Chloe of all people decide to cancel her visit? 

"Thank you Adrien, I appreciate it. I'll talk to you on Monday then."

"Talk to you soon."

 

 

**_10:00pm, Mayor's Office, Paris._ **

 

It was late at night, and Chloe was miles under stacks of paper trying to finish off some work she had been procrastinating to do for the last week or so. She had gotten too used to having a secretary do most of her work, though after the last one had quit on her Chloe felt maybe it was a good time to start being more proactive in her own work; despite not understanding how someone could schedule so many meetings so easily as well deal with publicity stunts so smoothly. 

She didnt want to disappoint the people of Paris, they loved her after all.

"Hello, Ms. Bourgeois, wonderful evening, isn't it?"

An unfamiliar voice rang through the room, as Chloe perked up from her desk work. 

A man with pale blond hair, and even paler skin walked into the room. He was a tall and slender man, and looked almost angelic with the moonlight shining down on him from the window. He gently shut the door behind him, without averting his gaze from Chloe. He adjusted the purple tie on his grey suit as walked closer, with a smile that could only be described as unsettling.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my office?"

"That, doesn't quite matter right now, I want to talk about you, Chloe..." The man move over to her desk, and placing his hands on it to lean down to her level. "Or should I say, Queenie."

The blood in her veins went ice cold.

"...What?"

"Oh, wouldn't it be just wonderful if Paris knew what sort of person you really are, dont you think so?" The man's smile started to show his pearly whites, as he pulled a file out of seemingly out of nowhere, that showered Chloe's desk in pictures of her in a black and yellow outfit, on different occasions fighting in street gangs and dealing in weaponry. He had pictures that even dated back ten years ago. "It would be great publicity I think, if they knew their mayor was second in command of the Hive Cartel. She also was one of the higher ranks in the Akuma, while they were still around." 

Chloe's look of disgust would not change even after the man started to pat her cheek gently, chuckling to himself.

"What is it you want from me?" Chloe hissed, seeing that he had more up his sleeve than he let on.

"Give me your Cartel's allegiance to me, and none of this will go public. If not... well.." The man looked at his watch for a moment, then returned his gaze with his icy blue eyes "You'll be thrown in jail before then sun comes up tomorrow, so, what do you say?"

That cheeky grin irritated the living shit out of Chloe, but she had nothing to defend herself with in this situation.

"..."

She had no choice here.

"Its a deal...."

"Great! I look forward working with you Queenie, I have very big plans for the both of us." He hopped from the desk, and spinned towards the door.

"Oh! That's right, now I can introduce myself. My name is Felix. There's going to be some big changes around here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot starts to roll from here! I'm super excited! I really hope you guys like the direction of where this is going.


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